Achievements Unlocked

If you've been browsing around the forums today, you've probably noticed that some members now have a little gear icon under their post info box that looks like this:

These folks have received the first award of Sonic Retro's new achievements program. The Hacking Utility Programmer achievement is for anyone who releases a Sonic hacking utility to the public. I emphasize both of those phrases because they encompass what achievements are all about: something public that helps other people.

Oh, great. So this is going to be more lavish praise for technical people, and us non-technical people are going to look like even bigger losers.

Far from it. The idea of Achievements came up after a discussion where Tweaker and I realized there was no way to reward people for positive contributions to the site and community aside from giving Tech Member or staff positions out. However, there are a ton of different ways to be a great, valuable member—and this system is meant to reward that. Make a helpful guide? Upload x number of images? Write a really insightful post that sparks Sonic-related discussion? Make a commit to the SVN? Donate to Sonic Retro or Hidden Palace?

All are a few examples of things that will be getting achievements rolled out.

Additionally, I'll be adding winners of either a general trophy or the overall winner of the past Hacking Contests as achievements (and obviously anyone who wins anything after judging comes back for this year.) It's a little memento that lasts longer than a topic.

Hopefully this will encourage you to get more involved with Sonic Retro and create positive change for the Sonic community overall. If nothing else, it gives you more forum cred.

At first I was shocked when I saw this under profile stuff. I thought "Did I do something bad?". But now this makes me happy. A great idea. May I ask for the icons of the other trophies (if they already exsist)?